5 Independent Wrestlers Who Should Stay Away from WWE
3. The Young Bucks | Matt PWI Rank: 42 | Nick PWI Rank: 40
The Jackson Brothers, Matt 32 and Nick 29, are known across the independent scene as the best tag team in the world – and to everyone else as the best tag team not in WWE.
For years now WWE fans, have been clamoring for The Young Bucks to make that leap – and for a good reason. In recent years, WWE’s tag team division has been a one-team show, starring The New Day.
Granted, now other teams have solidified themselves as threats, The Uso’s, The Revival, Sheamus and Cesaro, have all made the tag team division more interesting, and The Hardy Boyz have returned to shake things up a bit as well.
And WWE has plenty of teams, on the main roster they waste each week too. Breezango does a different skit each week on SmackDown instead of wrestling. The Ascension, another SmackDown team, only shows up to job to another team. It looks like Mojo Rawley and Zack Ryder are on their way to breaking up. Gable and Benjamin are used regularly and look to have promise, but they are still in their infancy as a tag team.
By far the most famous team WWE has that they are wasting week-in-and-week out are Gallows and Anderson – WWE’s version of The Bullet Club – who are known as The Club.
What’s the difference between Gallows and Anderson, and the rest of WWE’s Tag Team Division? They are the only team that didn’t rise to prominence through the WWE.
Every other tag team on WWE’s roster was made and made famous in WWE.
The New Day was formed on a random episode of Raw. The Uso’s, The Revival, The Ascension, as well as Rawley and Ryder, were all formed in NXT. Breezango, and Gable and Jordon were formed on SmackDown. The original Shield was formed in NXT; the new Shield was re-formed on Raw. The Hardy Boyz started in WWE over a decade ago. That only leaves The Club who got their fame on the independent scene, mostly in Japan.
While the rest of those teams may have started tagging together on the independent scene, WWE made them famous. Since The Club didn’t get their start in WWE, Vince doesn’t like them. Sure, he gave them a title run going into WrestleMania this year, but they were only transitional champs, holding the belts until The Hardys arrived and took the titles away at WrestleMania.
Gallows and Anderson have been poorly used since they arrived in WWE, and it’s hard to imagine things would be any different for The Young Bucks. Who are another team that made themselves famous on the independent scene, and once again mostly in Japan, as a part of The Bullet Club.
Matt Jackson put it best in an interview on the Edge & Christian Podcast of Awesomeness in May of 2017:
"Even if we were available right now, now is not the time to go for us because everybody in the world is going there and so for the first time I can even remember, it doesn’t seem cool to go there right now. I think for us, if we did sign right now, we’d probably be lost in the shuffle. And we’re so, so, so appreciated right now, like, by the companies we wrestle for. Like, we’re pushed to the top, we’re in the main events, we pretty much get whatever we want creatively. Like, we’re doing our own angles at this point, so how do we… it would be hard to walk away from all that."
Matt goes on to say that their next contract would have to be with WWE or they would never go there:
"But in 18 months, two years, or whatever our contract is, it’ll be interesting because I’m sure we’re going to at least want to talk to every company and to make a great decision for our families and for ourselves. And I think if it doesn’t happen in 18 months, then, it probably won’t happen."
(Quotes via Cageside Seats)
The Young Bucks would bolster the WWE’s Tag Team division. But, WWE doesn’t need them. If WWE would focus on building their guys and making their tag teams relevant, they could have the best Tag Team division in wrestling.